The Leap
by WannaBeBabe
Summary: Just a little tale about realizing what true love is. One-shot Babe.


_**I've been away from writing for about 6 months now and was cleaning out my old lap top, transferring my work to the new one and whatnot. I found this partially completed one-shot, so I thought I'd wrap it up. It's just a little tale showing how easily Ranger and Steph could get together and live the dream.**_

 _ **This was from the Fanfic Fanatics facebook group 200 Member Challenge (A LONG TIME AGO): Find a book, take the last sentence and use that as the first sentence of your new story. Length and topic are your choice. (I used the book**_ _ **Dead Until Dark**_ _ **by Charlene Harris, because it was the first thing I grabbed off my shelf.)**_

 _ **Anyway, I'm hoping to do a few little one shots to try to get my writing grove back in order (I've been focusing on school and just came off an accelerated 4 credit 6-week advanced accounting course…my brain needs time to refocus before I hop back into my works-in-progress.)**_

 _ **I don't own any of the material, nor do I profit from it, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on it so be kind and leave me a review. Thanks.**_

The Leap…

" _Right," I whispered. "Yeah. Back to normal."_ Though I wasn't convinced. Sure, the pyro-skip was finally in custody and he wouldn't be trying to start me on fire anymore, but I kinda felt like everything else in my life had just changed. Could things go back to the way they had been before today? Did I want them to?

Joe smiled, happy that I'd agreed with him, then kissed my forehead, before telling the paramedic he was riding with me to the hospital. Not that there was anything wrong with me, physically. At least not anything some fresh air, a cool shower, and some clean clothes wouldn't fix. Well, maybe a little burn cream and a few bandages wouldn't hurt my feet either, but I was fine. Really.

"I just want to go home," I told him. "Please. I'm fine. These burns are just superficial."

"Come on, Cupcake, you're on oxygen," he complained.

"I don't need it."

"So now you're a burn expert too?" he grumbled. "Get in the ambulance."

I could argue that I was a burn expert. I'd been burned enough over the years to know which needed attention, these didn't, but frankly I was too tired to get into it with him. "No."

"No?"

I figured he'd heard me the first time, so I ignored him and turned my attention to the EMT, Don. Yeah, we're on a first name basis and he knew the drill. Without a word he handed me the paper, acknowledging that I refused further treatment. I took off the oxygen and signed the release. "Thanks, Don."

"See ya, Steph," he smiled and patted my shoulder before nodding to Morelli.

The sad thing was that he probably would see me soon. That was my life, my normal, and I was tired of it. I had my answer. I didn't want to get back to normal. I didn't want any of this anymore. I just wanted to go home, so I started to walk.

"My truck is that way. Where are you going?" Joe yelled at me.

"Home."

"Your apartment is an ashtray," he reminded me.

"My parent's house then," I answered with a shrug, it was in the same general direction.

"Just come home with me. You know you'll end up there anyway," he said with a little smile when he caught up to me.

"I'm tired."

"I have a bed," he grinned back.

I felt like rolling my eyes, but my headache stopped me. I certainly knew Joe had a bed and I certainly knew what he was capable of doing in that bed, but the thought of it now just left me cold. It wasn't enough. It never would be enough. I wanted more. "I need to be alone right now."

He grabbed my elbow, turning me to look at him. "What the hell did I do to piss you off?"

"Nothing." And that was true, this time. He hadn't gotten angry or yelled at me about the skip, or my job, or the car fire, or my apartment fire, or getting kidnapped and locked in this burning building…yet. Sure, he tried to bully me into the ambulance, but that was just because he wanted to make sure I was okay. He'd finally done everything right, but it just was too late. "I just need to think."

"To think?" he questioned as he ran his hand through his thick, dark hair. "About what?"

I looked back over my shoulder at the smoldering building I'd just been pulled from, to the man who had just ran through the smoke and flames to find me, got me to a window, and jumped, with me in his arms, onto the giant inflatable mat that was being refolded that very moment. "Joe…"

"Manoso?" he growled. "Are you kidding me?"

"Something happened in there today," I whispered back to him.

"I'm going to kill him."

"Not that kind of something. The building was on fire!"

"I'm glad to hear he's got his priorities straight," he yelled back.

"I just need to think, okay? I need a break."

"A break?" he asked, starting to pace back and forth in front of me. "You want me to step aside while you run off to sleep with him again? Then what? Take you back when you dumps you, again?"

"He never dumped me," I hissed back at him angrily. It was true, kind of.

He stopped and glared at me. "I won't be waiting for you this time."

"I won't ask you to," I agreed as I turned and walked away.

"Stephanie," he called at my back. "Don't do this."

I didn't answer. I just kept walking. I needed to walk, to clear my head, to make sense of what had happened earlier, when I'd been locked in that storage room.

I'd woken up on the concrete floor and couldn't remember how I'd gotten there. Almost instantly I smelled the smoke and everything made sense. Morris had found me and after all his attempts, he was finally going to be successful. Unless I could get out of the building.

The smoke was pouring in from under and around the door, but it was the only way out. I tried everything I could think of, but I couldn't get the door open. The lock turned, but it felt like there was something propped against it from the outside.

That was when I knew I was going to die.

All the things I've done, all the people I've loved, all the things I wished I would have said flashed through my mind in that moment. People say your life flashes before your eyes just before death, but for me it wasn't a flash. It was long and drawn out, over the untold minutes I sat there waiting for the smoke to overcome me.

All I could think of was that I never thanked my mom and dad for everything they did for me. All they'd remember was the complaining, the disappointing, and the misbehaving. I'd never grow old like my Grandma Mazur. I'd never tell her how much I admired her. I'd never marry Joe. I'd never have his kids. I'd never tell Ranger that I loved him. I'd never see him again.

That's when the tears started. That's when I realized I didn't want to die. I wanted, more than anything, to see him one more time. I needed to tell him the truth, just once. Then I could go.

I suppose I shouldn't have given up. I should have believed Ranger would save me. He always did. But we hadn't spoken in weeks. As far as I knew he didn't even know I had a skip trying to torch me. I wasn't expecting him to burst through the door to rescue me. But he did.

He shut the door behind himself and found me huddled on the floor against the far wall in a matter of seconds. He was wearing combat pants and a weird hoodie that had an attached face mask, but I could see his eyes. His beautiful, dark eyes that said so much more than he ever did.

He pulled back the hood, then lifted me off the ground. "Are you hurt?"

"No," I answered as I swiped at my tears.

He pulled off his hoodie and tugged it over my head, filling my nose with a weird mixture of smoke and Bulgari. "Cover your face with it," he said as he pulled me toward the door and touched it. "It's not hot yet. The fire's covering the entire ground floor, but the concrete floors are keeping it from spreading too quickly."

"So I'm lucky he put me up here," I muttered.

"Babe."

I pulled the hood up and covered my face, like instructed. "What is this thing anyway?"

He reached inside the hood and repositioned the neck guard and mask, while tucking my hair inside. "Flame resistant combat gear."

"Of course." I looked at him, now only wearing a long sleeve tee shirt, and my heart dropped into my stomach. "What about you?"

"I'll be fine as long as I can get you out of here," he assured me. "Ready?"

No. "Yes," I finally nodded.

"I love you, babe," he said quickly before pressing his lips to the exposed skin between my eyes.

He couldn't do that. He couldn't just say something like that before plunging us into a burning building. But he did. Before I could even think of responding he was dragging me out the door.

The building was filled with a thick, black smoke. I couldn't see anything. It felt like my lungs were on fire. I couldn't catch my breath. I clung to him. If I was going to go, at least it would be with Ranger's hand in mine.

Then I noticed he was guiding me toward a window. It was gleaming with red, flashing lights and water droplets. Freedom was on the other side of that window. "Stand back," he screamed at me as he pushed me behind him.

I watched as he picked up a file cabinet and tossed it through the window. Then he kicked out the jagged edges long the bottom and sides of the window and leaned outside. I rushed to his side and looked down. We were maybe two or three stories up. Too high to jump.

He crawled through the window, sitting on the ledge with his legs dangling toward the ground. I wanted to call out to him, but I was still choking on smoke. Then he grabbed hold of me, helping me through the window. He pulled me down so I was balanced on his lap. I wrapped my arms around him, too afraid to look down.

I could still feel the heat of the fire climbing up from below us, but there was a breeze now. The smoke was no longer hitting me in the face. We were going to live. I could do all those things I didn't think I'd ever do and in that moment only one of those things mattered. I pulled the face mask down and put my lips to his ear. "I love you, Ranger. I love you more than I know how to say."

He turned toward me and kissed me, the way I thought he'd never kiss me again. "I knew you'd say it…someday."

"ESP?"

"Babe." He kissed me again before looking down. "Hang on."

Then he jumped. We hit the mat on our sides, facing one another. I had wanted to say more, but the crowds had swarmed us, and we were pulled apart by emergency workers. I just couldn't seem to get the look in his eyes out of my mind. There had been something different in them today, after I finally said the words that'd been trapped inside me…for years. I just didn't know if it would change anything between us or if everything would go back to how it was before. I didn't even know which I preferred.

If he didn't want to be with me, then I'd rather he just forget everything. I hoped we could go back to that place, where we were friends. I hoped I didn't ruin what we did have. Then again, I really hoped that he'd be in the same place as me and be ready to try something more. Not that I knew what I wanted, other than wanting to be with him. But, maybe, for once that was enough.

He finally knew what was in my heart and the ball was fully in his court now. I'd deal with the consequences of what I said when the time came.

Of course that time came almost as soon as I finished the thought. A big, black SUV pulled to the curb next to me and the back window lowered. "Need a ride?" he asked.

"I don't know." And I didn't. I didn't want to get in the car with him. I wasn't ready to face anything yet.

"You're not wearing shoes," he pointed out. "And your foot is bandaged."

"I burned it, a little," I agreed looking down at my red toenails.

He got out of the vehicle and the next thing I knew he hoisted me up into the air. Oh, boy. He was carrying me back to the car. "Put me down, people are watching."

"Let them," he said before stuffing me into the backseat.

"Hey, Steph," Hal said from the driver's seat. "How're you doing?"

"I'm fine," I answered as I nervously watched Ranger get in beside me and close the door.

No one said anything as Hal drove through the streets of Trenton, but as recognition of his route sunk in I felt my stomach flip upside down. "Where are we going?"

"Home," Ranger told me as he took my hand in his.

Oh. My. "Home?"

"Babe."

I rolled my eyes at him. Of course I knew he meant his home. It was just that it had never been my home and he'd never call it that unless he meant something else. "You could elaborate for once."

His lips tipped up in the corners like he was fighting a smile. "I could."

"Will you?"

"You're not going back to Morelli's," he answered. "Ever."

I blinked back at him. He'd never said anything like that before. Heck, he was usually ready to pack me off to Joe's. "That sounds, uh, serious."

"It could be." Oh.

I wasn't sure what to say. Was he really leaving the depth of relationship up to me or was I misunderstanding him, again? "You want me to stay with you?" He nodded once. "For how long?"

"As long as you want."

Crap. He really was leaving this open. And I didn't know what to do, other than test the waters. "What if I want forever?"

His fingers clenched around mine as he looked me in the eyes. "Then it's yours."

I gapped at him, and I'm pretty sure some unintelligible words came out of my mouth.

"I love you, Stephanie. There will never be anyone else for me. Move in with me?" he asked quietly.

My mind was whirling. Things were happening so quickly. "I don't know what to say?"

His almost smile appeared again. "Say yes." I opened my mouth, but no words came out. "Please."

For some reason the word "please" broke through the shock. I started to laugh, until I was legitimately crying. "Babe…"

"Yes," I nodded to him. "Yes."

He brushed my tears away and touched his forehead to mine. "You think you could tell me again, what you said on that ledge?"

I nodded my head before whispering, "I love you, Ranger."

"I like the way that sounds," he grinned just as we pulled into his garage. "Welcome home, Babe."


End file.
